About the Founder

STEPHEN MEADE is an American entrepreneur, executive and strategic adviser who is passionate about growing companies that make a difference in the world. He has the ability to catapult an idea from pure concept to the creation of a functioning business. In the past 20 years, he has created, incubated and architected 9 successful technology-based companies.

Most ideas are impactful and timely, like VirtualSellers, started in 1996, which was the first online ecommerce transaction processing company with 7 payment options, others are revolutionary, like Cenoplex, the first company to insert a four second audio message in the sequencing gap of a mobile phone call, transforming customer care for wireless operators worldwide.

Still others are more serious, such as one having a tremendous environmental impact by saving a targeted 20 Billion Gallons of water per year, and educating millions of children about water conservation.

And some are plain whimsical and fun, like InBetweeners, a jacket line created by Mr. Meade, and have been worn by the likes of Joel McHale from Talk Soup, featured on the right, and others.

Currently, Stephen serves as chairman and resident rainmaker at BigBamboo LLC, a holding company which incubates start-up companies from innovative idea to market-ready. As chairman and resident rainmaker at Big Bamboo, LLC, Stephen Meade creates and builds successful businesses by knowing how to gather a team with the precise skills, knowledge and expertise to move his ideas to market. After building human capital, he then raises the financial capital necessary to help bring the idea to market. In essence, he is a company architect once he determines an idea is viable.

He currently guides the future of companies including My WetRock, Inc. RONAStar, ComCom, OrionNation, and others. He founded Big Bamboo, LLC to serve as the incubator for those ideas worth building a team around.

His roster of successful businesses includes the founding and selling of SiteVisions.com, a website and database development company sold in 2000, and Virtual Sellers.com started in 1996, which became an innovation for an ecommerce-based transaction processing system that proved to be an early precursor to PayPal, and EAMS (Emergency Asset Management System), which is a software application for disaster management and was used in the City of New York to help manage the crisis of September 11th..

Mr. Meade’s past experience includes having an integral role in developing business models, management teams, systems and strategy. In 1996, he founded Virtual Sellers.com (OTC BB: VDOT), a provider of e-commerce transaction property services for internet-based e-tailers. He helped develop the transaction systems at VDOT. The company provided a service of back-end transaction processing and clearing. VDOT was sold in 1999 to a public company that assumed the name virtualsellers.com. At its height, VDOT had a market cap of $950Million. VDOT, the technology, service and concept was an early precursor to what later became PayPal. Prior to venturing into entrepreneurial world, Stephen was a regional vice president with Travelers Group, a fortune 500 financial services company.

Mr. Meade is also a seasoned business leader who speaks about the art of networking and how to build first-rate teams by recognizing how different personality types play a critical role in the success of your company. Executives, entrepreneurs, start-up founders, co-founders and entrepreneur students benefit from his talks. He frequently speaks at executive leadership conferences and the largest communities of startups in the world.

He is a frequent participant/speaker/panelist at CGI (Clinton Global Initiative), Founder Institute, Opportunity Green, and more.

He is the author of three books in the field of finance/credit improvement and business networking, a guest lecturer at universities including MIT, Harvard, Northwestern, PKI (Peter Kiewit Institute), University of Nebraska, UMKC (University of Missouri Kansas City), USC , UCLA, University of Chicago, Loyola University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Illinois at Chicago, UMKC (University of Missouri at Kansas City), the University of Nebraska, and more.

Mr. Meade serves as an adviser to numerous companies and organizations including: International House of Blues Foundation- Chicago, (www.IHOBF.com, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Enterprise Forum (www.mitefchicago.org ), PC Guild, which provides a tour management solution for Bands and entertainment (www.pcguild.com), AgileCo.net, Twitmob, and several more.

Stephen fosters the advancement of other start-up leaders as a founding member of KnockNOW, a non-profit that accelerates opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Mr. Meade was a judge for the prestigious global business plan challenge from Thunderbird (www.innovationchallenge.com), UMKC’s Entrepreneurial contest for 2010, and a finalist judge for Boats.com ec0mmerce awards.

His “Isolation Is A Good Thing” seminar trains executives how to isolate exactly what they need and who they need to meet before they execute in order to be more effective.

He welcomes an opportunity to speak if he feels he can add value to a venue.

If you are interested in having Mr. Meade speak at your next conference please contact Stephen.Meade at bigbamboollc. His areas of expertise are networking, building a business team, recruiting management, building advisory boards, start-ups and leadership.